BuggyGuy

Brilliant idea - I've resorted to spreadsheet to track my collection now, down to 4 cars left to restore, 6 new builds to finish, 9 bodies to finish and paint! Not buying any more kits or resto projects until they are all done

LRP AI Runner V2? Or possibly the KO Propo VFS range

PS-46 (Iridescent purple/green) with a 2cm stripe round the bottom of the body in PS-7 (orange)

I found some old stock of the Team Azarashi Gomurph and used one for the SB: http://www.team-azarashi.com/page_thumb224.html Velcro'd it on rather than body clips, I went for a modern race wing as well (JConcepts). I'll probably get one of these next: https://penguincustombodyshells.co.uk/product/kyosho-style-zx5-bodyshell-vintage-iconic/ I think the kit body would definitely protect the rear shock tower more than either of the above though.

If your racing on a really high grip surface you would struggle, but most tracks round here are low to medium grip astro so disadvantage of running this car is marginal. With a few hopups the setup window on the car is pretty large with lots of roll centre adjustment and all the toe/anti-squat settings you would want. I won't be racing mine at the regionals (got an XB4 for that) but it's fine for a club meeting as long you have the front driveshafts at minimum. It would be more sensible/better value for someone new to racing to buy a used XB4/B74/L1R - but I'm really into my Tamiya/Kyosho/Yokomo so run them everywhere I can as long as it's not a super serious meeting like say MKGP, or another regional/national level event.

Been tinkering a bit more, the following bits fit: - Kyosho ZX7 battery posts (allows fitment of shorty lipo easily in various positions) #LAW80 - Kyosho RF aluminium suspension block fits and can also be used in the RR position #LAW36GM - If you want an alloy servo horn that fits without trimming the chassis then Associated #AS1364 fits (note that part no. is for 23 tooth spline sevos like KO or Sanwa) - Any ZX6 or ZX7 anti rollbars, or rear anti rollbars from the RB7 or RB7.5 can be fitted. Use #LA237GM for the stabiliser ends, use #TF270 with the small ball cups included in the kit to attach them to the arms. An 10mm set screw with an M3 nut on top will secure the rollbars to the gearbox top. - Kyosho clamping hexes from ZX7 #UMW523GMB are a perfect fit and keep the car the right width with the kit wheels or ZX6/7 wheels if you are racing. Other thing to note is the car (well my car at least) is under the weight limit for racing, I had to put a 30g weight under the lipo to make race weight. Weight distritibuion in the car is odd compared to modern stuff, so put the lipo fully forward and buy a corner weight measure set (or put a wheel on 4 cheap kitchen scales from Amazon) to try and get your left/right balance right. Realistically you won't be able to balance this car front to back - so bear this in mind when jumping, the rear weight bias is good for low traction tracks, but you race on high grip you'll probably want a more aggressive front tyre than you'd normally run to make up for the rear weight bias.

I've finally got one of these and completed it this week. Very nice build, easier than the Dirt Master (a lot less searching for random sized spacers on unlabeled parts trees) - and no self tapping screws either. I did swap out the kit bearings for some Avid branded items though as the bearing quality in the Dirt Master was very low and I didn't want to get caught out again in the same way, the screws Kyosho supply (hex head machine thread) also feel very cheap - so use a good driver and be careful, or get a screw kit from somewhere reputable before started the build. Took it for a quick blast around the local astroturf track and was quite impressed, with the same electrics and tyres it was quicker than my DB01RRR. Only really disappointing bit for me was the slipper clutch plates, they are just basically giant unfinished steel washers - but luckily I had some spare DB02 clutch plates that were a direct fit and were much nicer. Car has a decent setup window - you get lots of suspension blocks in the box for adjusting toe in and stuff, it's not an exact replica of the ZX5 from a geometry POV, as it has a slightly different front hub arrangement - but it's close enough. I've ordered some CVD driveshafts (needed to improve front steering lock) and some antirollbars and will take it to the next club meeting to see how it fairs against the B74's and XB4's - I think it will be reasonably competitive on any track that's not very high grip. Certainly drives a lot nicer than the TD4 if anyone's looking for a new cheap 4WD club racer. I ran with a 5.5T motor with the only issue being the wheel hexes looking a bit sad when I checked them after I got home. If you run a hot motor - change them to some aluminium ones at the earliest opportunity.

The new Agama N110 uses it (release soon) and the 1/8th scale N1 as well, though this is less of a pushrod and more of a lever type. We've had TA05 and TA06 with inboard pushrod front suspension in some kit versions, as well as the TD2 and TD4 (all standard rear shocks though). I think the TC01 is the only Tamiya car with inboard shocks at both ends. Edit: CR01? Schumacher Top CAT (1988) and the Tenth Technology Predators (early 90's) might be the earliest RC examples. Some niche kits have done it as well - like the X22 from 3D Racing Concepts (Associated B74 conversion to make a modern Predator type car) and MRO Inspire 4 has quite a novel setup as well (though has been shown at a trade fair - it's not made it out of the prototype phase). The most successful recent car would probably be the RC Maker SP1 touring cars. I can only really talk from personal experience about the Predator cars, one of the main problema with the front suspension was that people struggled to transfer all there existing setup knowledge to the car when they set it up. To be able to use a shorter damper there was a short lever on the shock side of the rocker, and a long one on the pushrod side, this meant your damper was seeing more force for less input than if you'd had a lever around the pivot that was the same length on both sides - which resulted in requiring heavier oil and springs. This worked ok, and despite the short dampers it gave the car a decent amount of front suspension travel. The rear shocks were the main troublespot, they were the same length as the front dampers, but were actuated by a lever on top of the rear wishbones, this mount was really close to the inside link on the top wishbone and resulted in requiring very heavy oils compared to a normal car - but even with heavy springs such thick oil would slow the suspension response too much resulting in odd behaviour over bumpy sections. Some prototype off road Predators and the last onroad car had a regular damper configuration at the rear to solve these problems. Some other stuff to think about - Weight can be more central in the car - Looks really cool - Dampers can be smaller, giving the car better packaging, but you have to work harder to tune pistons, oils and springs (depending on your levers around the pivots) - Bladder typer dampers work better at some angles than others, so inboard layouts aren't always optimal Tamiya TD2 and TD4 excuted the front suspension well, they were able to use normal sized shocks, and pivots with equal lengths on both the pushrod and damper side of the pivot - so setup was quite easy. The biggest problem it caused was the compromised steering setup the car ended up with, as the damper positions meant the servo had to end up in an odd place, and the rack was sub optimal.

On the DB01 I would definitely get them while you can (I build my DB01s for racing over a year ago and they weren't the easiest to find back then) - for postal racing I would look for the WO versions. Or the unicorn item that is the TRF DCJs

Surely that would put the car beyond legal width? Though I suppose that wouldn't matter unless your racing

Same story on TD2/4

Though there's no TRF buggy currently available - my TD2 is quicker than any of my other TRF buggies on astro/carpet.

I find this quite interesting coming at this from a racer point of view. We have most new drivers who join (running 1/10th buggy) to start with an 8.5T brushless with a 60% throttle limit for the first week or so. Then they gradually increase the throttle limit and then up the timing when they are comfortable. Nearly everyone who's been racing for a few months ends up with a 6.5T with various levels of boost and turbo to suit their style. All UK buggy racing (none vintage) is done with brushless sensored motors and I doubt you'd ever see much more than a 5.5T / 6.5T in 4WD and 6.5T / 7.5T in 2WD

Another vote here for the Schumacher Storm ST or ST2 They are simply awesome and you can mount a wide variety of bodies. There's also a lot of completely uneeded hopups available as well.

I've built a few TRF201 varients and a DB01RRR from parts. Not cheap